Pre-Register for Your Delivery Stay

Why choose St. Mary’s Family Birth Center?

Stay in the SAME PRIVATE ROOM for labor, delivery, and recovery at St. Mary’s when you have an uncomplicated delivery!

The first hour after birth, The Sacred Hour, is reserved for mother and baby where it is encouraged that no visitors be present except for one support person. After this hour is complete, visitors are welcome at your discretion. During The Sacred Hour, mother and baby will be skin-to-skin. This helps regulate your baby’s temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, and blood sugar levels. Some other benefits of skin-to-skin include: • Easier adjustment for your baby • Easier to bond with your baby • Easier to learn breastfeeding • Early initiation of breastfeeding

In the event a c-section is required, our Family Birth Center staff is fully trained in cesarean delivery and our dedicated c-section surgery suite is only a few steps from your main room, so you get the care you and your baby need, all without leaving the Family Birth Center.

St. Mary’s encourages you and your baby to remain together in your private room, but for those times you would like to take a break, the Joe Ann Mitchell Newborn Nursery is adjacent to the nurses station so your baby is in good hands while you rest.

St. Mary’s sophisticated equipment, skilled staff, and the most up-to-date anesthesia medicines and techniques, make birthing safer and more comfortable.

Decide which items you will need for labor, birth, recovery, and the trip home for both you and your baby and put them into a carrying bag to keep in your trunk, or somewhere handy at home, and grab it on your way to the hospital when the time arrives.

Clothing to wear home Baby book (so the nurses can put footprints in the book for you)

DVD or VHS movies

‘Your’ pillow (if you are attached) – we will provide plenty of hospital-grade pillows for your use; however, if you bring ‘your’ pillow, please use a brightly colored pillowcase so we do not mistake it for one of ours.

Please note – we do not allow candles, incense, or anything that burns.

Please feel free to share your “thanks for a good job” or “opportunities for improvement” with us. Simply dial 100 from any hospital telephone, or from outside the hospital call 706.389.3000 and ask for the 100 percent line.

To protect the health of you and your new baby, visitors with cold or flu

symptoms should be discouraged. Mom’s and Baby’s immune systems are not at their optimum level during this time.

So that we may protect the privacy of all patients, visitors are not permitted to wait in the hallway. All visitors are asked to wait in the Family Waiting Area by the nursery viewing window.

The number of visitors during labor & delivery is at the discretion of your nurse and your physician. Please remember your nurse or physician may limit the number of visitors during this time in order to ensure you receive the best care possible.

During initiation of the epidural, only one support person may remain in the room until the epidural has been placed and mom has been stabilized.

There may be times your physician or nurse recommend you do not receive visitors. This is most common when you are receiving treatment for increased blood pressures.

Following a Cesarean Section, mom will “recover” in her room with her significant other and the baby (when possible), instead of going to the Recovery Room. Additional visitors will be encouraged to wait in the Family Waiting Area for approximately one hour following completion of surgery.

One family member may spend the night with mom while in the hospital. Please remind the overnight visitor to bring appropriate pajamas.

Choose a pediatrician before you come to the hospital. Many require a prenatal visit before accepting newborns as patients.

You will be asked to complete the birth certificate before leaving the hospital.

If the mother and father are not married, they must sign a paternity acknowledgement in order for the father to be listed on the birth certificate.

This is a friendly reminder that to be discharged from St. Mary’s Hospital you must have a car seat installed for your baby. For information on the car seat requirements in Georgia, and other helpful car seat resources, CLICK HERE. The Athens-Clarke County Police Department can have a Nationally Certified Car Safety Seat Technician inspect your child safety seat for free.

To protect the privacy of our moms, dads and babies, St. Mary’s does not post newborn photos on our website. However, if you are a parent or parent-to-be, we make it easy for you to share pictures of your newborn through a premium service called Bella Baby photography.

Bella Baby sends professional photographers to St. Mary’s every day to take beautiful, intimate portraits of new babies. If you request this service, photos from your session will be posted in a password-secured section of Bella Baby’s website where you — and those with whom you share the password — can view them for two weeks while deciding if you wish to place an order. Package pricing begins at $39.
To find out more, visit bellababyphotography.com.

At delivery, four infant ID bands will be provided with identical information and numbers (one each for mom and significant other, two for baby). All bands will be put on at delivery

An electronic security band will be placed on baby in the nursery. This band will set off an alarm if the baby gets close to any stairwells or elevators.

Infants must be in their bassinet in the halls, please do not carry them.

St. Mary’s Women’s Care is recognized for excellence…

St. Mary’s is proud to receive the Women’s Choice Award from WomenCertified for Patient Experience and Obstetrics. WomenCertified ranks St. Mary’s as one of America’s Best Hospitals for Patient Experience in Obstetrics in 2013, 2014, and 2015. St. Mary’s is also recognized by WomenCertified in America’s top 100 hospitals for Patient Safety.

Patient Stories

Learn about Jill and Jackson Michael’s story, whose triplets were born at St. Mary’s Family Birth Center.